Chloe and Rachel (Developer's Diary)
On July 18, 2017, "Chloe and Rachel", the second part of Deck Nine Games's Developers Diary on Life is Strange: Before the Storm was released. It features lead writer Zak Garriss, voice actress Rhianna DeVries and writing consultant and Chloe's previous voice actress Ashly Burch. Chloe and Rachel ESRB ---- Ashly Burch: I think that Chloe is a compelling character because she’s pretty wounded in lots of ways. She’s gone through a lot of things. Zak Garriss: Working with Ashly has been awesome. She has a very personal viewpoint on who Chloe is, what her voice is like, how she relates to all the other characters of Arcadia Bay. Rhianna DeVries: Hi. My name is Rhianna DeVries. I play Chloe Price in Life is Strange: Before the Storm. There’s something so relatable about Chloe, and I think that’s why so many people love her. It’s because we all have something in us, or something about her that we either want to be or already have. I took Chloe very personally. I tried to play her as raw and as close to heart as possible. I think just the rawness of her hurt and her pain is the thing that makes her such a dynamic and lovable character. Zak Garriss: She has this wicked wit that she uses to alienate others and keep people at bay. (Cutaway to gameplay footage example: David Madsen: “You could actually be good at this if you lost the attitude.” Chloe Price: “My attitude is what makes me special, David.” End of gameplay cutaway.) Rhianna DeVries: I think she’s someone that doesn’t want to let on that she is affected by others but absolutely is. Ashly Burch: Finding Rachel at this point in her life was really a big deal for her. Zak Garriss: We’ve embraced this idea that each girl kind of desperately needs something that only the other person can provide at this specific point in time in their lives. So getting to see that need, that vulnerability, and the strength and the kind of power that the characters pull from each other… it’s incredible. Ashly Burch: We heard about it in the first game, obviously a lot. It’s a lot of what motivates Chloe, and being able to actually see it and have the players experience it, I think will be really special and really fun. Rhianna DeVries: A lot of fans, I know, are concerned about what happened between Rachel and Chloe and exactly how it broke down and how many layers their relationship has. Just having a hand in bringing that to life has been an honour. Ashly Burch: I’ve had my own mental perspective of who Rachel must have been, and that kind of thing, so getting to actually see her fleshed out, and to be able to read the interactions that she and Chloe have has bene really awesome and the team has done a really great job of crafting those scenes. Rhianna DeVries: I got to work with PhilPhilip Bache of Blindlight, who was the Voice Over Director for LiS 1. He asked me questions that would prompt certain emotions from me so that I would read the lines a certain way. It becomes a very personal matter. It’s not just playing around anymore; I’m feeling everything that I’m feeling. It was the junkyard scene in Episode 1 where Chloe is just, like, crying and beating on cars and things, and Phil had told me, as a motivation, he just said, “You can’t be with someone you love anymore”. And immediately, that person popped into my head, and since then, it’s just been holding on to the memory of who they are to me, and how they feel in relation to me that’s been driving how I play Chloe for a lot of this. (Cutaway to gameplay footage example: Chloe Price: “I’m sorry, for whatever I did or didn’t do. Today was the best day I’ve had since… since my dad died, and I’ve screwed it up somehow, like I screw everything up, because I’m a fucking screw-up.” Rachel Amber: “Chloe.” Chloe Price: “Please. I don’t wanna be alone anymore.” End of gameplay cutaway.) Zak Garriss: Imperfection is something that we embrace with this story, for sure. Rachel Amber has a power, and a charisma, and a meaning to Chloe that is—you know from the first game if you’ve played it—incredible. We don’t know for sure that it’s purely good. We hope with the story in Before the Storm to raise this question of: It can be amazing to meet a person who has that power. That’s not necessarily a good thing all the time, either, because people are inherently complex. Rachel Amber is not just a hero to Chloe. She might not be a hero at all to Chloe. The player’s decisions will play a big role in determining exactly what their relationship is like and what kind of an impact Rachel is going to have on her. Notes Category:Before the Storm Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Behind the Scenes (Before the Storm) Category:Deck Nine Games